BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Chinese leader Hu Jintao signed an agreement on economic cooperation on Tuesday, building on ties at a time the debt-laden, isolated African state is seeking new sources of aid.

This is very sadly part of a pattern. If their is an international Pariah State, china will do buisness with them.

Monday, July 25, 2005

My dry spell in blogging has been brought up from its lethargy…. I have risen from the grave with something that sets my wheels a turning on what I should talk about today. And the Democratic Leadership Council has earned my thanks by giving me some fodder to Blog with.

(CNSNews.com) - The Democratic Leadership Council, which describes itself as a centrist group, is holding a "national conversation" on what the party should stand for.

The meeting in Columbus, Ohio, began on Saturday and winds up Monday with a speech from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the not-yet-running-for-president candidate.

"At a time when Washington remains gripped in partisan warfare based on the Bush administration's narrow and ideologically driven agenda, it's a good time for Democrats to look beyond the Beltway and talk honestly with each other about what we should stand for," the DLC said in a press release.

"That will be the primary purpose of the DLC 2005 National Conversation," it added.

What is the point of a platform then... Honestly people. We get allot of big wheels in the party togther.. they hold meetings every four years and come up with a Party Platform which canidates are ( more or less) supposed to run on.

State parties also come up with their own platform.

Now... they have elected a National party leadership team, they have passed a platform.. and they even nominated a canidate....

and they don't know what they stand for

I guess the headline from American Dad is true... "Democratic party missing, feared dead."

I was sitting back on the sofa and vegging out on some anime when I came to a deeper understanding of my blogging block.

Part of it, a large part of it, has to do with the fact I am burning more and more out of the political system. I have for most of my "political adulthood" in this country been outside the right/left system. As I matured and my beliefs changed with the events of our days I finally picked a side. But while I am a republican, and by the understanding of most folks a conservative I still am a fundemental outsider.

I don't care if Team Red or Team blue wins, I only care if this country wins. And all around I see people who play games with this country over politics. Right and Left both have their hands tainted in this affair for the heart of our nation. The more I see it the more it sickens me at a deep part of my personhood.We have a government that does things that look right or sound right instead of doing that which is right.

We are fighting a fundemental war for the survival of what is fundemental to our national soul, and it is just another brick being tossed by a mouse at a cat. I know it has always been this way, but at least in the past their was some seduction to it. It is all so naked and so vulgar.

I am going through a stressful personal time in my life's transition and right now I really don't feel like playing with people who are more intrested in the wars of some artifical tribes then a rational discourse for the heart of this nation.

I voted for a republican because he at least said he was going to do something helpful, versus the democrat who said he would do things my studies have shown me to be harmful.... but in all honesty nothing really has been done.... all of it is the same.

I'll be back up to blogging some more of a normal tone later.... but, I felt I needed some confession of the sickness i feel in my heart. I think to the CNN documentary when they were interviewing an Iraqi man fearful of the US withdrawing and abandoning his people again... and I hear people on the left and the right use that man but not help him. It just all makes me ill.... all of it.

We as human beings should be better then that. I listened to the reporters in Great Britian questioning Tony Blair and John Howard so willing to sacrifice those people who have suffered so much in Iraq just to have peace in their little corner of the world.... In this country few would be so debauched and Inhumane. We as Americans are born in a nation that has been full of purpose and destiny. And I hear that call, the drive to be a people of destiny and hope in that Iraqi man's voice... and so much of the squabbles over judges and appointments... all of it seems so very petty.

Europe has lost its way in guilt, It has lost its way in a heart that feels pain and suffering and recoils from it. It tries to fight those pains and suffering that are acts of god.... Well, the greatest evils in this world do come from the hearts of men. The greatest treasure of this world lies in the hearts of men. We can forever feel guilt, or we can take control of our destiny and control over our actions. Be an active part of the world.

And to embrace an active part in this world you know that the treasures that are material in this world have limits. But the treasures of the heart are truely boundless. We can try to give everyone clothes, shelter, health insurance, and food but we will exhaust the material treasures and lead to a great collapse. Or we can go out and slay the great beasts, banish the monsters from the darkness, and allow others to live-and to act- as free men.

With thoughts like this right now, thoughts about my own future and my desire to be one who helps people and fights for them so they can be free of the evil men who rule much of this world... I have trouble dealing with trivial things like what the definition of "Plame" is... or the politics of sexual liberation. These things to me seem truely fruitless.

It is really annoying, even more annoying then the block I get when I am writing my stories. I have some news that i sorta want to comment on but nothing seems to come out any good. I have a neat post to reply to but again... Nothing seems to form in a good reply.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

I think Judge Roberts wasn't a good pick.. not in the sense that he isn't a good lawyer/judge. No I think this wasn't a good pick from a political standpoint. Their were allot of qualified hispanics with a similar judicial temperment... and it has been my experience working around doctors that places like Harvard and Yale are highly overated anyway... I think Bush could have done something with some more boldness and kept the senate in their place.

The case involves former employees at the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla who complained about then-warden Lewis Kuykendall, who was sexually involved with at least three women at the same time.

The plaintiffs, Edna Miller and Frances Mackey, sued the Department of Corrections for sexual harassment in 1999.

A lower court ruled against the women, saying they "were not themselves subjected to sexual advances and were not treated any differently than male employees." The state Supreme Court overturned that decision Monday.

An isolated instance of favoritism would not ordinarily constitute sexual harassment, Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote in the unanimous decision.

But when it is so widespread that "the demeaning message is conveyed to female employees that they are viewed by management as 'sexual playthings' or that the way required for women to get ahead in the workplace is by engaging in sexual conduct," it constitutes harassment, he wrote.

Both women subsequently left their jobs, and Mackey died in 2003. An Internal Affairs investigation in 1998 resulted in Kuykendall's retirement.

so you are a manager.. or some other person "In authority" you have a perfectly consentual relationship with one of your female subordinates (henceforth to be known as "a really dumb idea anyway")... you can be found guilty of sexual harrasment if the other female employees think that you aren't treating them as well because you're not having sex with them.

so what first covered abuse of power, then turned into some metaphysical thing almost... now you don't even have to have anything bad at all happen to you... and you can still sue

"Deferred success" should replace the idea of failure for low-achieving pupils, a teachers' organisation will hear at its annual conference.

Deferred success... does anyone else think that is weird? Now what is deffered success you might ask?

If you engage a builder to build a 5-foot wall and he only does it 4' 9", you fetch him back.

"You don't demolish it and make him start all over again - he simply lays another course of bricks to 'top it up'.

"But failing an exam - especially if it involves repeating an entire year - does demolish and make you start again," said Mr Paxton.

I am at a loss here... so If a elementary, Middle, or high school student fails he only has to re do what he didn't pass on? Well then why even show up for classes... I mean just do a little here, a little there... I mean heck kids don't need structure.

The only sane thing about this.... is that this is mearly a proposal. I hope they have some degree of sanity and not pass this

After looking in the "manage comments" section I sure as heck see allot of folk replying to posts. I think I am going to need to increase the number of old posts avalible on the main site so I don't lose those posters due to time or a number of posts I make.

Some of the folks who commented on the gay marriage thing.... I am going to be making a condensed reply to all of your points.

But my position was unclear to some so I do want to clarrify it a bit better.

I think at this point in time humanity doesn't have enough evolution to deal with marriage of any kind with a proper social response. I think the only reason we want to keep the hetrosexual institution around is a grandfather clause exemption while we try to get society back in some sense of order.

I have some catch up to play, plus at 9pm all blogs will be belonging to the white house press confrence ( well all of us political bloggers)

As I am not currently In a sexual relationship I can write this open leader

Dear People having sex;

Stop filming your sex acts, especially if you are famous. If you film your sex act you better be sure that you will be in a relationship for 50-60 years with this person and live in a burgler proof house or it will get out.

If you are famous, plan to become famous, plan to run for high government office, or be in any other position where large numbers of people would know who you are... just don't film your sex acts. It is more likely that yours will get out.

also, If you are going to have sex with some one who may possibly be underage or you do not have iron clad proof of their age do not film it.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Nothing really happened in my personal life, In the news, at work, with any of my projects that really seemed worth while to talk about. I don't want to really just keep batting at the same windmills... because then I'd be in a rut and who wants to read a blog in the rut?

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Ken who hasn't been quite as voluminous of a blogger as I have been has started in to track backs. Now I figured i'd send him his first track back so he could see the use of it. And hopefully more folks could go over and visit his blog so i can slowly pull in a sane voice to the left-of-center bloggers

You're getting up there!! You may not have reached Fan Boy/Fan Girlstatus, but you've thrown yourself into this crazy anime world and nowthere's no escaping!! You're just going to fall further and furtherinto the hole. You relish in finding new series to love and pass on toyour friends. You look forward to attending cons and beginning orexpanding the crazy collection your beginning to gather. Congrats!!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

A new Gate has been revealed in the blogosphere and the reach of it is total in the plame case. But some people have uncovered new evidence

Here we see Barney at a press confrence denying that he informed Scot McClellan that Karl Rove had "nothing" to do with the Plame leak.

but

here we see Barney talking about the current administration spin on the plame case.

but the depth's of Barney's evil knows no bounds

here we see Barney taking the fire extinguishers out of the Press room at the white house

Here we see Barney and Ariel Sharon planning to divide the Middle East

We see Barney Here whispering to George his instructions. Because no man would want to admit his Presidency is being run by a dog.

His control of the President is so great, the President won't even drive his own truck. The dog does that to assure his evil power over the president

Here we see Barney discussing with the President how his secret plan, later known as Swift Boat Veterans for truth, is working.

Here we see the secret slave Barney was given to keep the US government out of Dafur.... truely the evil of this dog is boundless.

Here we See Barney laying down the law to the administration "We need more dead soldiers in Iraq... then we can up our contracts with Haliburton." I am surprised the daily Kos wasn't all over this one.

Here we see that Barney has even tried to extend his influence over all the g-8 nations... i wonder if barney is the "great beast" they talked about in the bible.

Here we see the extreme's the white house goes to.. to protect a simple "dog"

Here he is being guarded again.. just incase you thought the first photo was a coincidence.

Here is Barney sending emails from Karl Rove's computer to various reporters... and to a Kinko's in texas... so was Barney the secret force behind the CBS memo's...

this little dog is a great evil and we should all be careful... for he is the secret mastermind in the white house

Please to be stopping with all the Sequals and remakes. I think Sky High was the only preview based on a remotely original idea in the batch I saw before Fantastic-4 ( though... In fairness i did miss some of the previews)

I don't mind Sequals.. belive me I don't. But it seems like just about every movie coming down the pike is going to have a roman numeral at the end.

This madness needs to stop.

Their never ever *EVER* should be a sequal to the transporter. The movie was nice and compact. Worse why is it being set in the US.

and, while I don't mind all the remakes try to make them like the remake of the bad news bears ( which looks totally awesome) or the bewitched movie ( which was a spoof on remakes).

The broadcast version and they had -I guess- a democrat member of congress on ( I got in on the show late) and she talked about the risk of "home grown" suicide bombers here in the states based on sleeper cells found here and especially in california.

When Al-Qaeda has been known to run dummy operations to confuse and distract authorities away from real operations I am not sure of her proof.

Ok.. the one little irritant, like a itchy scab on that hard to reach spot was Doctor Doom. They had Doom Steal tech from reed. Now, I could accept the giving doom lame powers... I could accept making doom a billionare rather then a dictator but Victor Von Doom would NEVER EVER EVER steal ideas from Reed Richards.

Second annoying bit about their Doctor Doom.... for a man who is the intellectual equal of Reed Richards in the comic books... Doom sure doesn't do anything Smart.

Third and final annoying thing: What makes doom cool as a villian is he has no powers and he wins more then he loses vs. the super folk

all and all good movie. Jessica Alba and the Guy who plays reed needed to act more like their charecters or people with a personality but it was money well spent

Ok Hillary... we can hold hearings into products released by companies for a profit

but this is just the worst nanny-statism we've seen out of you in a long time

In a letter she is sending Thursday to the Federal Trade Commission, the New York Democrat expresses concern over reports that anyone who uses a free code downloaded over the Internet can unlock sexually graphic images hidden inside the game, called "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

Clinton asked the commission to determine "the source of this content," especially since the game can fall into the hands of young people. The game industry's self-policing unit, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, is investigating whether the maker of the game violated the industry rule requiring "full disclosure of pertinent content."

Ok you have to have the PC version

and you have to go out and download the mod

and ... why is this any of her buisness?

Politically, Clinton's decision to wade into the controversy over Grand Theft Auto is noteworthy. She singled out the game when many Democrats were trying to figure out ways their party can match Republicans on the issue of family values.

Yeah ask Al and Tipper Gore how well that worked out for the Democrats when they did it

Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, defended the rating system. "'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' was rated Mature, for ages 17 and older, with five content descriptors: intense violence, blood and gore, strong sexual content, strong language and use of drugs," she said. "It's hard to call that inaccurate. It's been appropriately rated."

Ok I was thinking long and hard about this call to perspective by John and I decided to answer him back.

Ok with the Karl Rove situation we had ( at worst) Karl Rove outing some one whom *IF* they were still listed as an undercover/clandestine agent it was by the CIA failing to modify her status post her probable outing by Aldrich Aimes to attack her husband who was at the time a supporter and later operative of the Kerry Campaign.

John Says

But, it is worth examining- What if this had happened during the Clinton administration? What if it was Paul Begala or someone like him who was accused of outing a CIA agent? What would the right be doing?

Ok I got one better for you John.

Lets say the Clinton National Security adviser, when asked to testify about relevant work he did regarding terrorist threats took documents which had hand written notes on them, thus making them "original documents" and stole them from the National Archives then later "accidentally" destroyed them in his home while the role of his administration regarding International terror was being investigated. Did we see in 2004 this be a big issue in the campaign? Did you see rush hammer the point day after day the way the far left is with the Plame case? Did you see mainstream conservatives figures making a call for treason? no you sure didn't.

And this occured when the republicans were IN POWER. Sandy got a relative slap on the wrist for a serious crime ( stealing of classified documents and destroying them without authorization). And when the Republicans were In power Sandy Berger got a slap on the wrist.

That is some perspective for you right there. I highly expect Chuck Schummer to make Valerie Plame an issue in the 06 election cycle. We didn't see Sandy Berger and his slap on the wrist as an issue in the 2004 election cycle.

Sandy Berger will probably get some position dealing with classified matters the next time the Democrats own the white house.... and republicans haven't said or done dizick to stop it.

Paul Begala is a left wing bomb throwing operative. This should surprise no one but Paul has decided to cross a line into stupidity that has given me an oppertunity to give Dick Durbin a new Martian Neighbor.

Begala's presence on the panel created a stir when he declared that Republicans had "done a p***-poor job of defending" the U.S.

Republicans, he said, "want to kill us.

"I was driving past the Pentagon when that plane hit" on Sept. 11, 2001. "I had friends on that plane; this is deadly serious to me," Begala said.

"They want to kill me and my children if they can. But if they just kill me and not my children, they want my children to be comforted -- that while they didn't protect me because they cut my taxes, my children won't have to pay any money on the money they inherit," Begala said. "That is bulls*** national defense, and we should say that."

woah woah woah back the F-up here Paul.

Ok.. you want to rant on tax cuts, thats fine. But to say republicans want to kill us... heck what are you trying to do run for Howard Dean's job

(Note: Howard Dean has not gotten an award to go to Mars because he hasn't taken a break from charecter into the psychotic... his charecter has since election 04 been pretty crazy)

Begala also included Republican domestic policies in his sweeping criticism. The GOP, he said, "ain't had a new idea since they opposed Social Security, and guess what, they still do. ... They are beginning to figure out that there is no Soviet Union, but they still want Star Wars to stop it," Begala said.

maybe this works out on the CNN as good discussion but Paul is all over the place. Please talk about why or even how the republicans want to kill us.

"Franklin Roosevelt got us in World War II. They dragged the Republicans kicking and screaming. They didn't want to get in that war. They didn't have any problem with Hitler. I won't go so far as to say they thought Hitler rocked. But there were people in America who did, and they didn't want us to get in that war. Democrats have always been just as tough as Republicans once they're in office," Frank said.

Yeah I remember that Bob Taft saying Mr. Roosevelt needed to stop that distracting War against Adolph Hitler and focus on the real enemey, General Tojo.

Now... to be fair to Paul Cybercast didn't explain his comment... but you don't make a ludicrous statement like this without backing it up.

Instead, the Ventoro survey found that savings averaged slightly less than 10 percent for all the offshore outsourcing projects that Ventoro reviewed, Hatch said.

The average cost savings increased to 19 percent when Ventoro excluded offshore engagements that were deemed to be a failure by executives or engagements that didn't have a prior baseline to compare cost savings.

However, the report concluded that cost savings of 30 percent is a realistic target for well planned and managed offshore outsourcing projects.

Soooo lets see a 10% savings vs MASSIVE negative publicity

good call big buisness. And whats worse... they really don't know how stupid the call is

Hatch, who prior to founding Ventoro two years ago, worked as a market researcher and executive with Luxsoft, a Russia-based outsourcing company, said that one of the key reasons why outsourcing programs fail is because customers have absurdly unrealistic expectations about cost savings.

It was not unheard of, Hatch said, for customers to go into an offshore outsource engagement expecting to received 80 percent cost savings.

This is a proof in my mind that we do not live in a capitalist system, because a capitalist would realize this doesn't work.

The enterprise has to have a clear idea of what it wants to achieve from the offshore project, and the goal shouldn't be just to reduce labor costs. Instead it should be something with the potential to generate a return on investment, improve business processes to lower operating costs, or serve customers better.

There has to be an organizational chart that clearly delineates roles and leadership responsibility between the offshore team and the onshore team, the report concluded. Without this, neither team will have a clear idea of how to meet project objectives.

Finally, enterprises have to recognize that achieving ROI from an offshore outsourcing project won't happen overnight, the report said; they have to be willing to set realistic goals for cost savings and expect that it will take time to realize potential cost savings and ROI.

In other words if you can't make a better widget... don't move widget production overseas

"While we are forced to live in a democracy with several branches of government, sometimes in a democracy the process is frustratingly slow," Blagojevich said.

but the Governor of Illinois has a great runner up quote here

"So whatever criticism and remarks that come my way--and I suspect there will be a firestorm of criticism because I'm using executive power--I enthusiastically embrace it," Blagojevich said. "I feel very good about this decision."

Good to know nullifying the US legislature, attempting to nullify your own legislature

that sir is some good times.

n California, voters recently approved $3 billion over 10 years for research. New Jersey has allocated only $6.5 million so far, but has proposed spending an additional $300 million, while Connecticut has approved $100 million over 10 years.

Wisconsin also has approved a new $375 million research facility in Madison and millions more for research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, officials said.

Blagojevich expressed the hope the $10 million will be the start of a bigger effort. A panel under the Public Health Department will begin taking applications for grants by the end of the year, officials said.

So why do we need more federal money now?

oh thats right because researchers just want a nice little slop bucket to eat at all hoggishly.

This could (but isn't) being done with private money for a reason... but why let reason get in the way of a "screw those jesus people" policy position...

Now, thanks to some recent innovations doing more with fetal stem cell lines is possible... but I'm not sold the federal government has to jump in.. and here is another reason why

I am all for people worshiping god and all but some one has the wrong idea

More importantly, "having the building look like the office a typical [person] would enter five days a week is right in line with what we're trying to do," he said, adding that's making people feel more at ease about church.

Dunno what offices the Pastor worked in other then "god" inc.... but I hate going to work my five days out of the work. I look forward to the weekend.

Stanley delivers his messages in khakis and golf shirts. His opening act is a live band jamming Christian rock music. The laid-back elements, like the architecture, are designed to put people at ease, McDaniel said.

Friday, July 15, 2005

You are Alcohol (aka: beer, wine, liqour). You areloner, odd, have a beautiful personality butyou don't know that because deep inside youfeel numb, you have a lot of talents but youare afraid to show them. if you show yourbeauty in the right place and the right timeevery one will like you, just be sure every oneare above 21 ;).

One post on Gay Orbit stood out to me today, because one of the incidents mention in the article I thought was very Bizarre-Paris Hilton in a gay pride parade... A woman who is clearly not gay, and seems to be the opposite of anything related to pride- the article on SOVO goes along with some good points

On June 18, the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles honored singer Janet Jackson with its Humanitarian Award, citing her financial contributions to AIDS organizations.

While Jackson’s efforts are praiseworthy, calling her humanitarian of the year is a stretch that could affect the value of future awards presented by HRC, said Jim Key, chief public affairs officer for the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center.

Just like the effort of the Nobel Prize team to give Jimmy Carter a peace prize as a sort of slap at President Bush things should be important and meaningful. I think for a gay rights organization a humanitarian of the year should do a whole lot more then just write a check.

But honoring celebrities and high-profile politicians simply to “curry press and favor” has brought no rewards or civil rights victories to gay organizations, said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network.

“I think it sends the message that our community is about fluff and glitter, and not about civil rights, because if you flatter our egos by associating with us, then that is good enough,” Thayer said. “It says something about the lack of self esteem that our community has that we’re willing to glom onto anyone with a big name who is willing to give us the time of day.”

Just as putting all your advocacy eggs in one political parties basket won't get you anywhere either.

Sadly these are voices that aren't running the agenda for the gay mafia .. ;-)

Thursday, July 14, 2005

J Chirac went ahead and present some well... astounding thoughts to the French people

“Certainly, their unemployment is lower than ours. But if you take the big elements in society — health policy, the fight against poverty, . . . spending involving the future — you notice that we are much, much better placed than the English.”

M Chirac said that France spent 5.6 per cent of its annual income on education, compared with Britain’s 4.2 per cent. Later, citing Britain unprompted, he noted that 7 per cent of French children lived in poverty compared with 17 per cent in Britain

Hmmmmmmm how is it that more french children live outside of poverty when less french people have a job?

ooo oooh I know is it huge state stipends?

Well that it lets just spend other people's money till we feel better. Isn't that great.

The Iranian government responded Wednesday that Bush should not intervene in the case of the jailed dissident, especially in light of allegations of U.S. human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons.

when you take abu grahib and gitmo and try to sell them as part of a wide spread pattern of abuse authorized by the very top -as opposed to what it is. a series of bad acts that happened due to break downs in the military system-. You enable people like the Iranian government to say "hey you can't talk to me about beating prisoners to death... you turned the air conditioning up real high on some one... how dare you. we just brutally beat them, but you guys put panties on their heads."

Included in the evidence cited by the Times: Hillary's quote to WABC Radio's John Gambling on Feb. 11, 2003, wherein she proclaimed, "I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigration."

The only problem is, Mrs. Clinton never spoke those words.

Apparently, the Times was offended by what she actually said, which was: "I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants" - a quote first reported by NewsMax an hour after Clinton uttered it.

The distinction is important, since, in the Times version, Mrs. Clinton is condemning the crime of illegal immigration, while in realty, what Hillary did was state her opposition to the immigrants themselves.

Now just in case anyone thinks the NYT is being picked on

every other news agency that has picked up Mrs. Clinton's blast at "illegal immigrants" in the ensuing two years - including the Washington Times, the National Review, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and MSNBC - managed to get the quote correct.

So what is the spin... who really cares. Honestly I am getting so tired of things like bias in the NYTG and people like hillary getting a pass that it becomes exhausting to talk about.

I have a bad feeling here folks. Joe Wilson has come out re-treading all his lies in his war with Karl Rove. But now Joe has friends Howard Dean and Chuck Schummer.... And I'm done.

Before their was a moonbat fringe to this story which was mildly fun, then hey a media bias angle, then ho a mountain out of a molehill angle

but i have a bad feeling in the pit of my gut. Social security won't be a big issue in 06Karl Rove will.The Border won't be a big issue in 06The Bush appointment controversy will.I sense Chuck Schummer and Howard Dean will be taking the democratic party away from issues that matter to real people, and put them in the 06 election on issues that matter on the Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, Moveon.org and their ilk.....

and... that's just it this whole thing is now a sick sick dream.

Like the Wellstone funeral, or the bending of the rules to get lautenberg into the senate, or the fact we hear about florida in 2000 but we don't here about all the double voters.

Now, I hardly went into the detail that David did because I frankly consider Reparations the kind of political toxin that should be reserved to the extreme fringe. The Sad part of this is that there is no way we could have considered just 10-15 years ago the N.A.A.C.P to be part of the lunatic left…

My first argument had to do with establishing culpability and damage in the Slave reparations game. While you can argue that blacks were economically disadvantaged versus the larger white community due to slavery, one could also argue that since they have outpaced people pretty much everywhere in Africa do we pro-rate that development out of the equation? Their own people sold them into slavery so they hold a degree of culpability, as do the Islamic slave traders who introduced the system of African slavery to the European powers. We have of course the European powers who established the culture of slavery so they have a degree of culpability as well. We have the fact that slavery is an economically regressive practice which actually slowed down development of the American society. We have many people who never owned slaves and never knew a slave owner in much of the south, so how do you pro-rate their culpability? How about the folks who the vast bulk of their financial interests in this country post date 1865 but they do have some strains of history that are touched by slavery economically?

Some of these arguments allow racist and bigoted thinking to come out into the light of day in a reasonable way. Because if we have to assign a price tag to slavery, and assign a blame game then we also have to in our system assign mitigation of blame. It isn’t about harm to white people, or about “getting whitey” though I think to the extremists who pioneered this issue before the NAACP did they may feel that way. It is about trying to establish fair blame, and fair culpability. It isn’t possible or even practicle.

A company which utilized slaves gained profits it would not have gained, which is then passed on to its (white) executives and its (white) shareholders. Those gains are illegitimately taken. While it is true that today there are some black shareholders and executives sharing the wealth, they are in a distinct minority (well behind the proportion you'd expect given their numbers in American society). The benefit to them is incidental and de minimis, about as relevant as saying that our obligations to slaves were fulfilled because we gave them housing and food.

Now... you missed something from the original work which puts your defense of the NAACP sideways

Almost every business has at least an indirect link to slavery, he said. For example, some railroad and Southern utility companies can trace their roots to businesses that used slave labor. Textile companies, for example, use cotton that was grown on Southern plantations."There's never going to be a solid number because the idea of how you connect a company to slavery is more a political one than a historical one," Mr. Lide said.

There is no way, according to an expert on the issue, to make a legitimate case for the company benifiting from slavery in an objective sense. a textile company may have benifited from slave grown cotton, but they may have also used cotton from other areas as well. So how can you place a line on the profits based on slave labor with intrest? You can't and people in the reperations game admit to that.

But the NAACP isn't going to be establishing a case based on logic and law. They will put out an implication and smear campaign in the media, call for a boycott.... and take such actions they deem valid until the company gives them what they want. And in corporate America these days the treat of such actions will often force capitulation.

And... Let us also not be naive here. With Slavery divestment at various universities and this action they serve a clear purpose of establishing a validity in the national political dialouge for reperations. And as more companies comply with the wishes of the NAACP then this will build a political argument for governmental reperations.

Dave then makes another point which I want to go back to.

hat's all well and good, and it explains why reparations doesn't and shouldn't consist of reaching into white bank accounts and drawing out enough money until the "debt is paid."

How can you pay for a thing like the holocaust?How can you pay some one for the fact their anscetors were disconnected from their traditional system brutalized and generations to follow were brutalized and treated abusively.... Is their any way to put a price tag on that?

Lets put it in perspective... when we have a Natural Disaster out there the debt is never paid. if you have x dollars in damages you are never put back to x... or even x plus intrest and growth. What happens is you are given a amount of money that allows you to move on with your life and meet some bare minimum standards.

To say you can assign a value to it is not only impracticle, not only impossible, it means that some day people can be freed of a reasonable guilt about the past. And since bigotry comes out of a sense of xenophobia we will have bigots happy as clams because they no longer have that slavery monkey on their back keeping them quiet about what they "really feel".

We can also look at Affirmative action which the advocates who got it into law presented as "something we'd need for 20 years at the most." It also is naive and insulting to suggest any amount of money will ever be viewed as reperations enough.

Next the same people who first demanded reperations will demand soverign territory in the united states to rule as their own... and eventually the NAACP trying to find a way to keep their power will advocate that position to....

It won't ever end, nor should it. It is a debt and a stain on our humanity that is impossible to pay back but is possible to move past.

Now I have covered previously that the NAACP hasn’t made a real effort to target the problems in black education. I am going to put this into perspective. The US government lost billions of dollars earmarked to help inner city schools and the NAACP was silent because the President at the time was "The first black president"

But let me show some of what the NAACP efforts on primary and seconday education ( because if kids can't get the tools to go to college all the efforts in the world to provide them with a college education are useless) actually do.

he fundamental goal of the NAACP's education advocacy agenda is to provide all students access to quality education. The NAACP Education Department seeks to accomplish this goal through policy development, training, collaboration, negotiation, legislation, litigation, and agitation. The NAACP Education Department's resources are strategically focused on three major objectives:

The NAACP Education Department coordinates, supports, and advises, the more than, 2,200 NAACP units efforts to annually meet these objectives through a nationwide emphasis on program development, capacity building, and collaboration. Through these elements, the NAACP seeks to:

1. Empower students, parents and local advocates to assess their local schools, school districts, universities, and state educational agencies through data collection and the production of substantive research on key educational equity issues.2. Empower students, parents and local advocates to assist their local schools, school districts, universities and state educational agencies through training, and collaborative technical assistance designed to prevent discrimination in educational programs and services.3. Empower students, parents and local advocates to advance educational excellence through programmatic support and development based on sound research, strategic planning and strong collaborative networks.

Schools in the Inner city can't keep good teachers but they go to fight equality issues. Schools in the inner city often don't have the same quality school facilities and they view it as an issue of racial equity.

The issue is the building is run down and johnny can't learn because the teacher has only been there for 3 months and will bolt in another two. But the biggest impediment to black education as pointed out by bill cosby is the black family life... and the NAACP is silent on that issue. If you are going to fight for systematic equity in the public education system, but are also going to be silent on the systematic disruptions in many families then you are spinning your wheels on what's going on.

Kids being dissed for "acting white" by trying to learn.Parents who encourage their children to watch far more TV then their white counterparts, and far more then is healthy for children to function educationally. This is something that the NAACP has encouraged by pressing for more programs that reach out to the black community.

I could run down a list of more things but all the NAACP is willing to do is aggitate that "this school is racist" and not fight for "we need to help our children learn and give them the tools to achieve in this society." Indeed the promotion of a victimization mindset, which reparations contributes to by saying the reason they are failing is because of slavery, only discourages people from attempting to achieve.

now he goes off the deep end Dave does with a attack on my general premise

guess. But think of the precedent we're setting: that if you can dodge liability for massive injustices for X amount of years, then you're home free. In cases of massive wrongs (and in civil claims in general), this "modified statute of limitations" argument simply doesn't fly--especially since it was our legal system which prevented Blacks from pursuing slavery reparation claims when it would have been timely.

Nothing stopped blacks from suing their owners and companies. Nothing stopped them from suing the government. The problem is at the time everyone would have thought the idea was crazy...

Now I want to get into something personal. I had a mild form of learning disabilities that I suffered from in school. I can imagine I probably still suffer from it technically, but what finally crossed my educational performance over was a truly radical notion. I control my body, I control my mind. Whatever problems; I have with my mother, with coding problems, with transference issues, and the like I can’t let this keep me from succeeding. And you know what, when I had that change in my attitude I was able to achieve again.

More blacks own homes, more own small business, because the positive tools the NAACP provided have enabled them to innovate and to achieve. But what the NAACP is doing in bullying corporations will only serve to reinforce and make louder that voice in the black community “we can’t do it.” And as Henry Ford said If you think you can’t do it, your right.

This attacks thrift, this attacks hard work, this cheapens charity, and it coarsens us as a society. And it will not be tolerated by me.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

My point was misrepresented but thats ok I will tommorrow some time be posting a challenge to this post.

But let me go to one point that was missed of mine entirely in such a way it needs to be addressed.

Perhaps we don't hear the calls of the NAACP for improved educational access for minorities, but that I think says more about how race relations is descriptively portrayed in America today (a bunch of whiny leftist radicals complaining about ridiculous things like 100 year old wrongs and too few minorities in TV shows) rather than how most minority advocacy groups would like to hear it discussed.

Now You hear Julian Bond railing about the President. Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and their ilk know how to draw out the media with hot rhetoric.

these people are highly media savy; and they are choosing reperations.

In the african-american community more media is being consumed but it took Bill Cosby to draw a great deal of national attention to how black families are failing their own children.

Lets talk about priorities... if your community is not building a solid foundation for its house... no amount of fancy products in the world will help you.

Reperations is fancy trim, and paint. Getting Black families to value education, and to make their children value education is a solid foundation.

Holding democrats ( who in just about every inner city in the US run the education system) accountable for the poor education their children recieve and the mismanagment of the education programs the government designs to help their community is a solid foundation.

I don't believe ( and if Bill O'Reilly is being honest on this issue I am right) that Al Sharpton can't make this important issue the top issue of the black community the media is intrested in.

Or Julian bond

Or Jesse Jackson.

I believe reperations is a bad idea because the leadership and intellect designed to run this project could be used to bring the same kind of national attention and spotlight to building a solid foundation for the future of their community.

and instead they want money.

and when we look at things like the number of jackson allies and relatives who get jobs with the companies he shakes down we have our answer as to why.

Allot of the folks over in the Raging RINO land are pro-gay marriage/Pro-civil unions. And then we have folks like me. I am lukewarmly tolerant to the idea about civil unions, but I would vote down any presentation of gay marriage –and would make a marginal politician in my mind one I’d be less likely to vote for-

Now that I have your attention let me start you out with some full disclosure: My mother worked in lighting and control systems for a while and I’ve come to know many of her gay coworkers from that period in her life. As a nurse she has had many more. I had a cadre of friends from a gifted school and an art school growing up. And one of my regrets is, at the urging of the offended party, I didn’t raise a stink about some folks in DeMolay who pushed him a tad on his sexuality in an uncool way. (Though he probably shouldn’t have volunteered the information which set them off)

Second full disclosure: I had a Transgendered phase in my life, which allot of folks go through in their awkward teen years but I got over it. And of my readings on human sexuality I have looked at a gambit of things from various time periods.

Now on to what *I* believe.

I don’t believe in heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or omnisexuality. I know they exist and I know people practice these sexual behaviors but I don’t believe they are some fundamental biological imperative. I believe sexual development is a process in your brain that develops for whatever reason your brain grows and becomes what it is.

I also believe relationships (I.E Marriage) don’t have a blessed thing to do about what you do with your tab a, your slot b, or some one else’s tab a and slot b. I believe this is a product of the modern age and the liberation of women. Men plowed the oats but women weren’t viewed as a “proper” oater so they went out and decided to do some of that themselves and so sex became more open and things went more sideways.

Don’t misunderstand me… I am not advocating Misogyny and a return to another day here. I am pointing out that historically sex and relationships were a different set of things. In ancient Rome a male-male lover pair was not viewed as the same thing as a male-female lover pair. You had your male lover but were still expected to marry a woman and produce some sort of continuation of the lineage.

Sexual matters in those ages were products of power, politics, and economics. Today they are emotional and products of being fully actualized in your desires. Marriage was born to fuel the power aspects of sex into organized societal ends. Marriage today is about personal happiness.

We can’t use arguments of a different era’s treatment of “gay” relationships (when the sexuality wasn’t the same) nor can we claim marriage as an unbroken legacy of tradition. Attitudes can and do change.

I want to present civil unions as my political libertarian nature tells me is the “right thing to do” but when I look at the past of the “gay rights movement” and look at what other civil rights movements I am left with a problem “they will use it to try and bully society into giving them shakedowns and the like ala Jesse Jackson.” See sexuality is about power. They sued groups and pressured groups who supported the boy scouts. And in today’s world they can do the same to church groups and any other civic group that dares to disagree. We simply aren’t able to come up with an evolved answer right now as a human family.

In Europe, where such things are more likely to have happened, we see the decay in their birth rate, their family rate, and a far more cavalier attitude in much of Europe about sex. There the desire to present civil unions comes out of the sense that much of the civil rights laws do of “we are the bad majority so we have to pass laws to make ourselves feel more enlightened.” Instead of as the movement in the United States is packaging it (gay Main Street) the European model shows about the same amount of familial decay as the rest of their familial structures.

Economically we are going to have to do something because the modern era has the basic gist “we really don’t care who you have sex with” and the reality of some homosexual couple’s demands paperwork for it. But socially we are doomed to fail because we cannot be honest about human sexuality or even its very origins. When I know of gay men who enjoy everything short of insertion on a heterosexual woman and “straight” men who don’t consider drag queens men we have a real disconnect here.

Sex and loving commitment are two different things, maybe if we can discuss how loving committed relationships that build families and help people function better in society can be supported we might have a chance of developing something socially that might work… tab a and slot b won’t work when people will argue that a “trouser snake” doesn’t count if the person with it has “fun bags”.

Some relationships make the person in them better, and make both people a more productive unit of society. That should be where we build from… the gay marriage movement has shown it is no more a product of that philosophy then heterosexual marriages because both are sexually focused, and not relationship focused.

I am with Tom cruise the crazy: In my mind, sex is pointless and not any good without the relationship to go with it. But maybe I am as crazy as tom…

When political thugs are out to get people civil rights I know they come for my rights and my money. When we change society we can get it done without redistribution of my wealth (cause I am poor gosh darn it) or changing of my social contract without my permission.

When Arie Zmora escorted an Israeli TV news crew around St. Cloud a few years back, he didn’t expect any trouble. The former St. Cloud State University (SCSU) professor had given an exclusive interview for a feature news story about anti-Semitism in the Granite City.

Eventually, they stopped in front of St. Mary’s Cathedral to get shots of the swastika engravings high on the church’s north and south walls. Seeing swastikas on a church shocked the veteran news team, even though they had years of experience filming some rather fierce scenes in Israel.

Soon, a small, curious crowd gathered around the crew, and a few of the onlookers angrily questioned why they were taking footage of the swastikas. After all, it was 2002, a year in which St. Cloud faced an onslaught of negative news coverage, from the Star Tribune to the Washington Post, about incidents of racism, anti-Semitism, and hate crimes. Many St. Cloud residents felt the coverage to be heavily imbalanced and unfair.

Ok.... Let's hear them out...

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that 2002 was the same year that the St. Mary’s church council first voted to remove the swastika discs. Rev. Steve Binsfield, rector of St. Mary’s, has repeatedly expressed his frustration over such coverage and criticism.

In a recent church bulletin, Binsfield noted how “the press can twist anything,” and how members of the church can “understand the history of the symbol and that it was a part of our church building before Nazism took strong root, the presence of that broken cross does more harm today in the public perception of our Church than good.”

Well ummmmmm 2002.. why did it stay up there that long?

Unfortunately, many subscribed to the ‘gospel of hate’ preached by radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin,” he wrote. In the 1930s, Charles Coughlin became the national mouthpiece of hate and anti-Semitism, with millions of listeners tuning in to his weekly radio program. A Catholic priest based in Michigan, Coughlin ranted endlessly about absurd Jewish-Communist conspiracies on his program. He also founded proto-White supremacist organizations that would go on to support Nazism and fascism.

Ok... the innocent rational... gone

sorry I don't see it. Your area supported proto-nazi's in america and happened to use the swaztika as a sign of their german nationalism

ummmmm i dunno maybe when we came back from the war it was time for it to come down at the least.

From February 1999 to November 2002, deputies read almost all arrestees a Miranda rights form that the courts have found was flawed. The form advised suspects they could request an attorney before questioning, but omitted mentioning that they have a constitutional right to have an attorney present during questioning. Courts have found that the missing word means juries can't hear the defendants' often damning statements to deputies because they weren't properly advised of their rights.

Sheriff's top officials insisted on using the form even after State Attorney Michael Satz urged them to change it as early as May 2001.

and what is the result of their stupidity

He's on videotape calmly recounting to a Broward Sheriff's detective why he shot his best friend. A jury needed less than two hours to convict him of the May 2000 slaying. A judge sentenced him to life......Four suspected killers have either been freed from prison or seen their cases dropped. Another three accused murderers will receive new trials. The statements of four more accused killers have been or could be suppressed......

He's on videotape calmly recounting to a Broward Sheriff's detective why he shot his best friend. A jury needed less than two hours to convict him of the May 2000 slaying. A judge sentenced him to life.

And three months ago, John Q. Ripley walked out of prison.

One simple word helped him regain his freedom. That word, missing from a Miranda rights form used by the Broward Sheriff's Office, has or could undercut at least 24 other cases against suspected killers, robbers and drug dealers. The word has left a trail of overturned convictions, dismissed charges and weakened cases for prosecutors.

Four suspected killers have either been freed from prison or seen their cases dropped. Another three accused murderers will receive new trials. The statements of four more accused killers have been or could be suppressed.

From February 1999 to November 2002, deputies read almost all arrestees a Miranda rights form that the courts have found was flawed. The form advised suspects they could request an attorney before questioning, but omitted mentioning that they have a constitutional right to have an attorney present during questioning. Courts have found that the missing word means juries can't hear the defendants' often damning statements to deputies because they weren't properly advised of their rights.

Sheriff's top officials insisted on using the form even after State Attorney Michael Satz urged them to change it as early as May 2001.

The courts have set clear parameters on what cases are affected by the disputed form, limiting the number of successful legal challenges. But when defendants' statements are suppressed, the cases sometimes have been irreparably harmed. Defendants who have benefited include:

Ripley, 48, who said on tape he "had to kill" his friend and led deputies to the murder weapon. An appellate court tossed out his first-degree murder conviction because of the flawed rights form and detectives illegally arresting him outside their jurisdiction. With a jury prevented from hearing his statements or any evidence gathered because of them, prosecutors dropped the case.

Nneka West, a Dania Beach woman convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for taking part in a September 1998 drug rip-off that left her boyfriend dead. After she was granted a new trial, she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. She walked out of jail in April.

Willems Calixte, a Pembroke Park man charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Authorities said he participated in a botched robbery that left his brother and an accomplice dead. Without his statement to detectives, prosecutors said they had to drop the case against him.

Walter Dendy, sentenced to life in prison, and Neal Bross, sentenced to 15 years, for a fatal acid throwing attack. Jury selection for their new trial is scheduled to begin Mondayfor the July 2000 death of Leonard "Rudi" Houda. Jurors won't hear incriminating statements Dendy and Bross gave authorities after their arrests. Dendy's attorney, Fred Haddad, said his client's statement was "devastating" at the first trial.

"There's a saying in criminal law that a fish doesn't get caught if it keeps its mouth shut," said defense attorney Eric Schwartzreich, who represents a man whose 30-year prison sentence for attempted robbery was overturned because of the form. "Confessions are often the most damaging part of a defendant's case."

"Adding additional cautionary warnings pertaining to a suspect's rights to counsel are not mandated by law and are in my opinion an additional obstacle for our investigators to overcome," wrote Lt. Col. Thomas J. Brennan in a May 29, 2001, memo to Undersheriff Thomas Carney.

That same day, Major Tony Fantigrassi wrote to Brennan that Patricia Windowmaker, an attorney within the Sheriff's legal department, revised the form in February 1999 "after conferring with the State Attorney's Office."

"This form was sanctioned by them prior to our approval and distribution," Fantigrassi wrote about Satz's office.

But Chief Assistant State Attorney Chuck Morton said Thursday that Windowmaker never talked with Satz or anyone else from the State Attorney's Office about the Miranda rights form before changing it.

Thank you Broward county. Thank you for letting murderers, Rapists, and god knows who else

"On the morning of the full moon day of June 21, I noticed my thing (sex organ) was not the same as before," Thin Sandar, who now goes by the male name Than Sein, told AFP in an interview at his home.

"And my breasts disappeared," Than Sein added. "So I called out and showed it all to my mom and dad. It was very strange."

ummm yeah very strange sounds good as any way to describe this.

Regardless of the official findings, local villagers and other curious Myanmar nationals are flocking to the Aung Myay Thar Yar pagoda, in this new satellite township 19 kilometers (12 miles) from Yangon, to see Than Sein for themselves and make donations to him or the temple.

Up to 400 gather at the pagoda each day, often in a courtyard under colorful umbrellas to ward off the sun's rays, waiting for the chance to talk with and touch Than Sein.

"I have never heard of anything like this, so I came to see him," 21-year-old housewife Thandar Win told AFP.

Iowa - Iowa, a hotbed for politics, is unfriendly terrain for female candidates. The state that holds the nation's first presidential caucus stands as one of just two — Mississippi is the other — never to have elected a woman governor or sent a woman to Congress.

It may be trendy to skip Iowa for some (Maverick John McCain) but with this little factoid in -my- mind Hillary has to run in Iowa

Iowa's record on female candidates has never been tested by presidential politics. Although they campaigned in the state, Colorado Rep. Pat Schroeder in 1988,Elizabeth Dole in 2000 andCarol Moseley Braun in 2004 quit before Iowans caucused in the opening nominating contests of their campaigns.

Since 1920, when women gained the right to vote, only 11 women have won statewide election in Iowa. All told, 21 states have elected women as governors, and eight states have a woman in the statehouse today.

again she has to win in Iowa

There's considerable frustration among activists. Campbell noted that Florida has an older population yet little hesitation sending women to Congress. Nebraska and Kansas are rural, too, but have had female governors.

"There have been women elected in far more conservative states than Iowa," Campbell said. "It is a bit of a perplexing question."

"It may be the candidates," Conlin said. "It may be the right woman has not come along."

If Hillary is going to be the It person in 08 and if *I* were advising her.... she would have to win in Iowa

Many stupid ideas have come in the systematic creation of group think in this country "reperations" is one of those things.

Reperations ignores the fact that the US government/Colonial government was a force that freed many slaves.the role of abolitonists to the freedom of slaves.the role of Africans in selling them into slavery.

The blame can go back to multiple countries that don't even have the capacity to pay for reperations

The NAACP will target private companies as part of its economic agenda, seeking reparations from corporations with historical ties to slavery and boycotting companies that refuse to participate in its annual business diversity report card.

When black kids are getting poor educations in the inner cities, the NAACP isn't going out there and pressing on that issue.When black parents are not just allowing, but encouraging their children to fail in this society the NAACP is silent on this issue.

But when a company can be shook down for cash, the NAACP has their hands out.

This is simply repugnant.

"Many of the problems we have now including poverty, disparities in health care and incarcerations can be directly tied to slavery."

And people can ( I don't agree) that the Black community was better off using statistics under Jim crow then they are today. So If black people had more thrift, better family cohesion, and better prosperity then they do now in much of the country that is a spit in the face to this odious line of logic.

now I will again repeat I don't agree with those uses of statistics but it shows that slavery lead to black poverty is ludicrous.

She said two banks trying to do business with Chicago have recently apologized for their role in slavery and promised to make amends by offering scholarships to blacks and money for other education projects that benefit blacks. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank recently completed an examination of its history and found that two financial institutions it absorbed years ago -- Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana -- had owned more than 1,250 black people until the Civil War, procured as collateral on defaulted loans. The company apologized and officials said it will start a $5 million scholarship program for children in Louisiana. Wachovia Corp. was accused by a Chicago alderman of lying last month when it submitted its statement in January stating it had no knowledge of any involvement with slavery. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company later apologized and indicated that it would create an education fund or contribute money toward black history education.

But... if Black schools are failing, an issue the NAACP isn't pushing hard enough or even in my view at all how do such things as Black History education help? Look at the number of civil rights leaders and black elected officals who refuse to speak out during black history month...they know that by diversifying black history you trivialize it.

and by making education funds -in this manner- and shaking down the money of people who never owned slaves because a company they now own or are clients of, AT ONE TIME did is insulting to those people.

Almost every business has at least an indirect link to slavery, he said. For example, some railroad and Southern utility companies can trace their roots to businesses that used slave labor. Textile companies, for example, use cotton that was grown on Southern plantations. "There's never going to be a solid number because the idea of how you connect a company to slavery is more a political one than a historical one," Mr. Lide said.

Thus you are going to see city governments like chicago and the NAACP shake down these companies until they can prove they have stopped beating their wife.

Now unlike Joe I find these abstract "education funds" to be a bit insulting and actually a tool to fund more buercratic allies for the SEIU and the NEA. Now if say this were set up in a fund to help bring all the schools in the ghetto of chicago up to par with other schools ( in regards to vacilities and the like) we might have something.

A team of Senate and House Democrats today are planning to introduce legislation today aimed at significantly increasing size of the U.S. Army.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services (SASC) airland subcommittee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a SASC member, and Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), both members of the House Armed Services committee, are pressing for the passage of the United States Army Relief Act.

I support in theory this idea, but *I* have to add that Hillary is coming out and endorsing a policy that undoes what her husband did in 8 years.

"All of a sudden," he continued, the media began asking, "'Is she selling out? Is she abandoning her principles?' But if John McCain, who's pro-life, works with Hillary on global warming, he's a man of principle moving to the middle."

"It's nuts," the former president said.

Yes it is nuts people consider John McCain a man of principle or moving to the middle

(Oh ..wait )

Ok yes If Hillary's statement is what she has always believed then bill is right.

But *I* think that is open to question... and maybe Bill shoulda taken a look at that angle

Al-Drudge has another thing about the sterling moral charecter of John McCain

SEN. MCCAIN STARS IN BOOB RAUNCH FEST

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- who once held hearings chastising Hollywood studios for producing R- rated films and marketing them to teens -- is now playing a part in one!

Opening this weekend, WEDDING CRASHERS, a movie packed with raunchy moments and bare-breasted beauties bedding down with the guys.

here is Drudge's money quote

"At one point we sent the script to someone who knew about the rating system," Dobkin reported, "and he sent back a list of R-rated elements. It was a massive list. The two funniest scenes in the movie would have had to go."

State owned Chinesse oil company complains and threatens about US regulatory hurdles.

However... when the shoe is on the other foot? well Al-Reuters has the answer.

BEIJING, July 13 (Reuters) - China has moved for the second time this year to limit outside involvement in its electronic media, banning city and provincial broadcasters from even cooperating with foreign firms.

One Chinese television company, Qinghai TV, said such regulations had caused it to cancel plans to work with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the China News Service and the People's Daily Online reported.

"Radio and television stations may not rent channels to foreign organisations (and) may not cooperate in funding and operating radio and television channels with foreign organisations," the regulations published on the Web site of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said.

The regulations, which did not apply to central media, also said foreign organisations could not cooperate with local broadcasters on programming, including live shows.

but of course Nation wide enterprises (I.E ran by the central government) have no such ban.

A blog I like to read even though periodically my head explodes from looking at some of the ads has brought up a protest move by some folks in Canada.Now the LP's gay marriage bill was widely unpopular even in their own party to the point the prime minister had to use some of his powers to force people to vote for it...That little caveat having been said

He wants the Queen to order Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson to refuse to grant royal assent once the bill is passed.

"Our beloved Queen Elizabeth II, I know that the refusal of the Governor General to give royal consent would precipitate a crisis. Millions have nowhere else to turn but you," Mainse wrote in a letter he sent last week to Buckingham Palace.

"Should you act in this, millions of us would surely become more fervent supporters of the monarchy than ever," he wrote.

Ok.... Due to some hinkiness in previous Canadian constitutional law and by my rough reading of it here are some possible outcomes.

The Queen gets temporarily removed as Queen of Canada ala what happened to the King of Belgium when he vetoed a Anti-Abortion bill

The Prime Minister refuses to allow it to happen. The Prime Minister exercises under law many of the powers of the crown. I do not know if this is one of them.

So no matter what Paul Martin wins... though under option 1 it would be debatable if the queen could be divested of the crown of canada .... though precident would suggest it is possible

UPDATE:

To be clear Prime Ministers often force their cabinets to vote for things they may disagree with. this is an aspect of the "democracy" in Canada that i find silly. Not just on this issue but as a rule. I am stating that Martin used this aspect of the canadian system to run roughshod over his cabinet members... just as he could over (say) a budget provision... and it is wrong then to.

TOKYO - A group of teachers and translators in Japan on Wednesday sued Tokyo's outspoken nationalist governor for allegedly calling French a "failed international language," a news report said.

Twenty-one people filed the lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court, demanding that Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara pay a total of 10.5 million yen (US$94,600) compensation for insulting the French language in remarks last October, national broadcaster NHK said.

In their suit, the plaintiffs accused Ishihara of saying: "French is a failed international language because it cannot be used to count numbers."

I am not sure which is sillier... the comments or the lawsuit.

also in my "which is sillier" query how exactlly are they going to prove a case on this.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS News on Tuesday unveiled plans to enlarge its online presence with a 24-hour broadband Internet service providing video clips that consumers can assemble into their own individually tailored newscasts.

For the mainstream Washington media, which have faced criticism for appearing to go easy on the Bush White House, the new link to Rove provided a hook on which to hang tough questions. "Since it involves the media themselves, it's natural that the media would have a strong interest," says Professor Pitney. "For the time being," he adds, "there's an absence of competing political stories. We don't have a Supreme Court nominee, and the middle of summer is generally not a time for major legislation."

So the Insane ramblings that passed for a press confrence was an absence of competing political stories Ok... here is a thought, I know it may be wild but MAYBE the media should try and focus on other stories

Like the government spending money like a crack head? Hey that's a storyorThe Illegal Immigration problem, especially with non-latin Americans now gunning the border. hey there is another political storyorHow several of the "divisive" judges in the gang of 14 deal were voted for by people who called them divisive

Oh.. wait you mean a Political story that is all packaged. Yes that is it because then what would the press corp do... WORK

So in the interest of filling media time and space, Democrats are more than happy to oblige. And because of the Plame case's ultimate link to the run-up to the Iraq war - and her husband's role in raising questions about Iraq's efforts to acquire materials for use in nuclear weapons - Democrats now have a reason to revisit their core allegation about a White House they view as less than forthcoming on Iraq.

and again... no bias in the media

no none at all. So the plame game is being played because the democrats need a way to attack bush on Iraq while having voted for the war on Iraq

but the most devlish thing in this whole CSM article

"If anything, the attacks by Democrats could enhance [Rove's] stature with the people he deals with," says Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont-McKenna College in Claremont, Calif.

The Clinton Global Initiative is an effort to meld the Davros World economic forum, which doesn't do anything

Clinton has said he got the idea for the meeting from Davos, where theWorld Economic Forum meets each year in Switzerland. That meeting has come under fire by critics who complain it is all talk and no action.

"If you come to my meeting, at the end I want you to make a commitment," Clinton said. "If we did one of these every year at the opening of the UN ... and these commitments were made and kept for a decade, I think it would change the world."

Now if the projects they set about are as simple as this article lays out (Say building schools in Keyna) It could be like the carter center only with less coddling of marxist dictators.

I'm going to reserve judgement here because it looks like Bill is trying to meld American-candoism and private charitable giving, with his megastar power.

It might be a good thing.... so we bloggers should be watching.

But *IF* Clinton starts this project it may make his role as The first dude more difficult... so lets also keep an eye out to see if Bill builds this with tools to have an easy out from this organization which bares his name